Aristotle's biology 



him as Ostracoderma, but his actual descrip- 

 tions of the structure of the Cephalopods are 

 exceedingly remarkable. His distinctions be- 

 tween the Malacostraca or Crustacea, Entoma, 

 Sponges, and Jellyfish are also still of value, 

 and these divisions remain along much the 

 same lines as he left them." ^^ 



In reading through the biological treatises 

 of Aristotle, one realizes that they are the 

 pioneerings of a mighty mind. He was laying 

 out the multitudinous matter, striving, not 

 indeed to introduce an order not its own into 

 the chaos of Nature, but rather to apprehend 

 and describe and know the reason of the intri- 

 cate and marvelous order which was embodied 

 in Nature's realm. That Nature held such 

 order, and presented it and worked ever with 

 purpose in fulfilling it, was Aristotle's scien- 

 tific and philosophic faith. If Anaxagoras or 

 another had this faith before him, he was to 

 render it explicit through a more adequate 

 analysis, a keener discrimination, and a mar- 

 shalling of detail hitherto unattempted. He 

 was a universal pioneer in nature's vast realm: 

 an investigating and dissecting pioneer, press- 

 ing on through all the seeming mazes of the 

 unexplored jungle, insistent upon laying out 



[6i] 



